This invention relates to head wear and, more particularly, caps having stiffening elements in their crown.
Caps of the type including a visor extending from the cap crown are very popular. They are not only worn while participating in a sport, such as baseball or golf, but often are worn just as casual wear. Caps of this type are also frequently used to promote businesses and products by placing a logo or emblem on front side of the cap crown above the visor.
There are a number of drawbacks with prior-art caps of this type.
Preferably, cap crowns are made of a fabric material that is soft, pliable and light weight and, therefore, comfortable to wear. However, with prior-art caps, the crown is not self supporting and, therefore, the crown tends to collapse. The result is that not only does the cap look sloppy, but any logo, emblem or insignia on the front of the crown is less visible.
It has been known previously to add stiffening elements to caps to prevent the collapse of the crown.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,701,366, issued on Feb. 8, 1955 to R. R. Oberrender, typified the approach of adding stiffener means around the entire crown of the cap. The stiffener means are strips of stiff material extending upwardly of the crown in circumferentially spaced relationship around the crown and anchored to the cap lining by stitching them directly to the cap lining. Caps employing this old construction present an overall stiff or upright crown, which is quite formal in appearance.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,133,289 issued on May 19, 1964 to Frank K. Lipschultz exemplifies yet another old approach for stiffening a cap crown using a sheet of fabric material which is somewhat flexible, but sufficiently rigid to underlie and support the front portion of the cap crown on the inside of the crown. These sheets of fabric material are typically inserted into the head band of cap crown, or, as shown in this old Lipschultz patent, are inserted into a pocket formed between the front of the cap crown and a second piece of material stitched to and underlying the front of the cap crown on the inside of the crown. This old construction is not only expensive, but, in practice, does not adequately prevent the cap crown from collapsing.